Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others--first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one's own interests and desires. Carried to its "perfection," it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother.
Jean Baker MillerAs other perceptions arise...the total vision of human possibilities enlarges and is transformed.
Jean Baker Milleras a society emphasizes and values some aspects of the total range of human potentials more than others, the valued aspects are associated closely with, and limited to, the dominant group's domain.
Jean Baker MillerIn a basic sense, the greater the development of each individual the more able, more effective, and less needy of limiting or restricting others she or he will be.
Jean Baker Miller